THE  DEATH  OF  STRAFFORD
sympathies. There is a charming little letter written
by Hyde to Whitelock in 1637, which indicates very
gracefully what those sympathies were.
^c My Dear,
I am glad you prosper so happily in Issue
Male, God send the good Woman well again, which
my Wife prays for, as an encouragement for her
Journey, which she shall shortly be ready for ; you
may depend on a Doe on Monday, God willing,
although this weather forbids you to look for a fat
one. My pen is deep in a Star-Chamber Bill, and
therefore I have only the Leisure and the Manners
to tell you, I am very proud that you are a Friend to
Your most affectionate Servant.
edward hide.'
The man who could write that was likely to see
through even the darkest political prejudices into a
character so amiable as Hampden's, and although
when writing his history in later years he says, ^c His
death therefore seemed to be a great deliverance to
the nation/ we know as we read his testimony to
the dead man that it comes from a very tender
conviction. It is tempting to borrow from Claren-
don's account piecemeal, to embellish this narrative
of Hampden and his times, at discreetly chosen
intervals, but it is so important as a whole that it
seems preferable to insert it at this place, when we
have been considering the nature of the man who,
resting now from his first great popular crusade, was
shortly to leave his retirement for ever and become
a foremost figure, it may almost be said the foremost
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